2024-06-17 22:22:38 ¶ ●

I keep seeing posts from people interpreting Hugh’s words as “Will has a hard time accepting his feelings for Hannibal”. This story isn’t about any of that.

I’ll say, this talk about romantic/sexual love; a lot of the people I’ve spoken to here want to box in Will’s love for Hannibal as either black or white. It’s either platonic or romantic. Plus, the general consensus seems to be that Hannibal “fell in love with Will at first sight and has been courting him in his ‘fucked up’ way”.

I think Will has a fascinating way of thinking. Hannibal, who also has a unique way of thinking, plays around with him like a cat with a mouse toy because he’s sadistic. It turns out they’re very in tune and have a deep affinity for each other. They grow to love each other. To me, the most attractive aspect of this love is that it is intimate; it is dangerous, and magnetic. Sex is not even on the table because it is insignificant compared to what they have mentally. Idk why a lot of us, who, despite loving Hannibal and Will for their eccentricities, still want to box them into a typical romcom storyline. Will’s story is not kissing his spawn of the devil prince charming, it has nothing to do with Hannibal directly; his final boss is Will Graham. Will needs to accept himself after having crossed a few lines he has feared crossing all his adult life. It is to find a place of acceptance—and this acceptance is not murder and running off honeymooning with Hannibal being 'murder husbands’. It’s forgiveness for himself. When circumstances struck, he made irrevocable choices consciously. Those choices have changed him. And he needs to be able to look in the mirror and accept his mistakes, which he can’t allow himself to do.

So Hugh’s answer doesn’t surprise me at all. In fact, the “Will is not accepting his feelings for Hannibal” take surprises me the most. This is simply not true. Will acknowledges several times in the show just how much Hannibal means to him. To many of us, love translates to kisses and sex, and that romantic love is the pinnacle of all love, but platonic love can also be kisses and sex, which in my opinion is even more intimate. Kisses and sex is simply ONE form of communication. In Will and Hannibal’s case, love is expressed in the form of long, verbal conversations, vulnerability, and forgiveness. Will forgives Hannibal for who he is, and Hannibal forgives Will for who he is in turn. They can kiss and have sex, but they don’t need to. They already prove their love for each other in other poignant ways. Will and Hannibal grow soft with each other, and they would eat each other’s hearts raw. I think that’s what makes them, them.

Really, do I enjoy the idea of them kissing and having sex? Yes. Do they need to or even want to? No. They can go their whole lives sitting on the patio 6 feet apart, talking about grandiose shit and it’s love (in fact, the greatest love of each other’s lives).